Unearthed Job Application Stephen Harper 2005

The latest Conservative attack ad to discredit Justin Trudeau is childish at best with a strong scent of desperation.

It's a mock meeting discussing Trudeau's resume as he applies for the job of Prime Minister.

However, going back to 2005, when Stephen Harper himself was applying for the job, what were his credentials?

He quit most things he started.  He was a staffer for Brian Mulroney but quit when Mulroney refused to address cancelling Employment Insurance, or at least making it more difficult to obtain.

He was a Reform Party Member of Parliament but quit when things weren't going his way.

He ran the National Citizens Coalition, a corporate advocacy group initially created to end Public Healthcare in Canada.  He quit that to run for leader of the Reform Party/Canadian Alliance/Canadian Reform Alliance Party (CRAP)/Conservative Party of Canada (They had an identity crisis).

He won that race but when he lost the 2004 election .... he quit.  With a lot of misguided persuasion he got back on the horse, but in 2005 he was hardly Prime Minister material, though he did know how to cheat to win an election, a skill he has only gotten better at.

So what if we put ourselves in that room, with that group, as they determine whether or not Stephen Harper was right for the job.

"Let's talk about Stephen"

"I hope he's not as bad as his hair"

"What does he know about balancing a budget"

"He did study economics so would know that if you grow the economy, the budget will balance itself.  No economist would argue on that point, so let's move on. "

"What does he say about keeping us safe?"

"Well he has been on a celebrity Fox News tour telling anyone who'd listen that we should join George Bush in Iraq."

"That's crazy talk.  Iraq was not involved in the attack on the World Trade Centre.  Besides, even if they defeat Al-Qaeda as they suggest, there will always be another group, perhaps worse, ready to take their place.  Canadians have spoken clearly.  No Iraq War!"

"If his aim is to simply go where the United States goes, what kind of leader will he be?  Sounds more like a follower to me. "

"So what are his priorities, other than making war?"

"He wants to put a stop to same-sex marriage"

"Like that's our biggest problem."

Laughter

"I've read a copy of his speech to the Reform Party Assembly that earned him a round of applause.  In it he wanted to cancel EI, Old Age Security and Canada Pension"

"Yes.  A lot of seniors left the Reform Party after that.  He's not worth the risk.  Our seniors need those safety nets, as do our workers."

"And don't forget that he sued Canadians because he wanted corporations to determine the outcome of elections."

"I'm not saying some day, but I'm saying forever.  This man is not right for this country.

"Who does his hair?  I suppose if he got the job he'd hire a hairdresser. But can't he afford one now?"

"Stephen Harper.  He's just not right for Canada."

It's High Time Canadians Started Listening to Bill O'Reilly at Fox News

The Conservative Movement, that has been gaining momentum since the 1960s, has made one of their missions, destroying progressive agencies; especially those that support the Welfare State.

In the U.S., they honed in on ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now), that advocated for low- and moderate-income families.

What bothered Conservatives the most about ACORN, however, was their voter registration drives, that encouraged the poor and disenfranchised to take part in the democratic process. They knew that anyone involved with the organization would not vote Republican. Conservatives have always worked to make sure that they didn't vote at all, and ACORN stood in the way of that.

I had written before of one such attack on the group's integrity, perpetrated by two young warriors, Hannah Giles and James O'Keefe.

I only shared the story because it exposed the kind of tactics used by the American Leadership Institute, created by Morton Blackwell, and its Canadian affiliate, the Manning Centre for Building Democracy, created by Preston Manning.

ACORN would take a much bigger hit, however, when it was discovered that Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN's founder Wade Rathke, had embezzled almost a million dollars from the group. ACORN executives handled the matter internally, not to cover up a crime, but because they knew that word of an embezzlement would be all the ammunition conservatives needed to shut them down.

They were right.

The right-wing noise machine went into overdrive, calling for their immediate defunding, and without so much as a public hearing, the government was forced to stop financial aid to a group that had done so much for so many. ACORN went into receivership and were forced to close their doors.

Fox News, not wanting to draw attention to their advocacy work, instead equated the agency with "voter fraud", despite there being absolutely no evidence to support it.

Bill O'Reilly has since coined the term 'The ACORN Factor', to describe any voter fraud and subsequent defunding, promising to seek out perpetrators and make sure that their punishment was swift.

Of course he only meant liberal groups. If he wanted to include conservative voter fraud, it would become a full time job and require a staff of thousands. Google 'GOP voter fraud' and see how many stories pop up.

Pundits, not wasting an opportunity to expose the hypocrisy, are now suggesting that if O'Reilly wants to defund any group engaged in voter fraud, they should start with the Republican Party.

Harper Government: No Single Acorn but the Whole Damn Forest

Not since before Confederation, when voting booths were often scenes of violence, in an attempt to suppress the vote; has Canada experienced such mass voter fraud, as perpetrated by the Conservative Party of Canada.

The Robocalls scandal, which was national in scope, was a blatant attempt to steer voters, already identified as not supporting Conservative candidates, away from the polls.

Using Bill O'Reilly's ACORN factor would mean that we must defund the CPC.
But if that isn't enough to convince you, how about their attempt to sneak the so-called Fair Elections Act, which is now being challenged in court; past us?

This act will make it difficult for students, seniors and First Nations to cast ballots, but will also make it next to impossible to detect voter fraud.

Elections Canada will be gutted and attempts to encourage voting, no longer part of their mandate.

Not only is the Act unconstitutional, it is undemocratic, as it clearly is designed to give Conservatives an unfair advantage.

Voter Fraud. The ACORN factor. Defund the CPC.

But let's not stop there.

Dean Del Mastro. ACORN factor. Defund him.

Mark Adler. ACORN factor. Defund him.

Rick Dykstra. ACORN factor. Defund him.

Shelley Glover. ACORN factor. Defund her.

Lisa Raitt. ACORN factor. Defund her.

And how about registered charities and non-profits that shill for the Party, like the Fraser Institute, The Canadian Taxpayers Federation and Charles McVety's Canadian Christian College that was actually accepting "charitable" donations for the CPC?

In fact, it was McVety, Jim Flaherty's former campaign manager, who brought Karl Rove to Canada to teach Canadian conservatives how to cheat; so he should definitely lose any funding or tax exempt status.

Yes Canadians should listen to Bill O'Reilly. Once in a while he actually makes sense.

Mark Adler: From Belle of the Ball to Do Not Call

As Conservatives prepared for the 2011 election, they began targeting ridings with large Jewish populations, that they felt they could steal away from the Liberals.

Stephen Harper was already portrayed, and not always in a positive light, as the most staunch supporter of Israel; so to build on that, they had to select candidates with the same commitment.

In the Toronto riding of York Centre, that candidate was Mark Adler, who had at least one friend in a high place, Nathan Jacobson; who was somewhat of a kingmaker for the Harper Conservatives. A described "philanthropist" Jacobson had all of the right connections, both in Canada and Israel.

Jacobson hosted a number of Canadian-Israeli receptions on Parliament Hill, and said that people from the Prime Minister's Office attended, as well as Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird ... A photograph has circulated in the media of Jacobson standing between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Prime Minister Harper ...

Jacobson also said that he had introduced Kenney to top-level politicians in Israel. "Jason and I have spent a little time in Israel on several occasions when he's been there. And I've hosted dinners in Israel with senior government people. I, in fact, took Jason to meet Netanyahu his first time, meeting Netanyahu and other people within the security and political environment within Israel."

Mark Adler had met Nathan Jacobson when he was trying to secure Israeli speakers for his Economics Club of Canada. According to Jacobson he loaned Adler $140,000 to expand into the U.S., which he failed to pay back. As a result, Jacobson was suing him. Stephen Harper had to know of the lawsuit, as his then Chief of Staff, Nigel Wright told Adler to settle it.

But soon a scandal would break that would prove to be more of an embarrassment for the Conservatives. Seems their bridge to the vote rich Jewish community might collapse, when it was discovered that Jacobson was wanted in the United States on a charge of money laundering.

Harper, Kenney and Baird claimed not to know of his criminal past, which begs the question: why is there no screening of people getting this close to the Prime Minister and members of his cabinet?

A Bizarre Election Campaign

Mark Adler would go on to defeat the incumbent, hockey legend Ken Dryden. However, what made the campaign bizarre, was the issue of who was the biggest supporter of a foreign country.

York Centre has a large Jewish population and a key issue, Dryden told CBC News, is the two parties' positions on Israel.

Standing outside Kiva's Bagels on Steeles Avenue, Howard Cohen is one such voter. He said Conservative Stephen Harper's consistent backing of Israel has won him over to the Conservative camp. "We need all the friends we can get and he's the leading supporter of Israel in the western world," said Cohen.

Voters like Cohen have not forgotten Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff's labelling of an Israeli military action in Lebanon as a war crime back in 2006, and he said Dryden could end up paying the price. "He's on the wrong side this time," Cohen said.

Ironically, key players in both the war in Lebanon and attacks on Gaza, are being investigated by the Israeli courts.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the current justice minister, are among the high-level figures accused of breaking the laws of war when they launched attacks on Lebanon in 2006, and on Gaza in the winter of 2008-09.

The allegations have been levelled by Marwan Dalal, the only Israeli lawyer to have served as a senior prosecutor in one of the international criminal courts at The Hague in the Netherlands.

Dalal, who spent three years as a prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, belongs to Israel's Palestinian minority, which comprises a fifth of the country's population. He said he had based his petition to the court on "strong factual and legal findings" from public sources, including the reports of Israeli official inquiries.

His evidence includes statements from senior Israeli officials in which they appear to implicate themselves in actions - including killing, collective punishment and attacks on civilian infrastructure - not justified by military necessity. Such acts are breaches of the Fourth Geneva Convention as well as Israeli law.

I hardly think that Dalal is anti-Israel. He just knows that if they don't address this issue themselves, the International Criminal Court will take over.

So apparently Michael Ignatieff was on the right side of this issue after all.

Robocall Scandal and Republican Canvassers

Mark Adler may have been the Belle of the Ball after his stunning victory, but the glow would soon fade from his tiara, when it was discovered that his riding was one being investigated in the Robocall election fraud scandal.

He was also one of the Conservative candidates who used the Republican Front Porch Strategies to canvas for him, but failed to mention that on his Elections Canada financial report. Would that invoice have put him over his legally allowable limit? He spent more than $94,000.

In Hot Water Again

Adler would continue to play off the Israel connection to ensure his political fortune, especially given the bad press he'd received after the election.

When Stephen Harper visited Israel for the first time in January of this year, Adler was heard on tape begging to have his picture taken with him at the sacred Western Wall.

A month later, he barred Liberal MP and human rights activist, Irwin Cotler, from an Israel charity event.

Global News reported last week that Adler told Cotler – a well-known human rights activist – he was not welcome at the event on Jan.19. Rabbis said they heard about the incident and were upset that Cotler was not invited to attend – one even calling it senseless hatred.

Senseless hatred indeed. Nothing new for the Harper clan though, as they also tried to ban Michael Ignatieff from attending a Hanukkah ceremony at a school for disabled children.

But aside from the gaffes, Adler's integrity is again put into question, with a pending and controversial fundraiser that he will be hosting.

He settled the lawsuit with Nathan Jacobson, by agreeing to pay $114,962, hence the need for the fundraiser.

However, this has now become an issue for the ethics commissioner.

The Conservatives themselves, questioned how NDP Pat Martin was going to pay a $100,000 settlement, and according to Martin: “It’s wrong to use subsidized public dollars for personal private use,” he said. “I’ve got tons of money in my riding association coffers and they can’t spend a single nickel to help me with my legal problems or the debt from my lawsuit"

Donations made are tax receipted meaning that 75% of the donations would be made by us, and it's pretty clear that this fundraiser is being conducted by the riding association. Says Steve Maher:

Mark Adler’s brother, Paul, is the treasurer of the York Centre Conservative Association. Martin Rosenbaum, who handled Adler’s defence in the Jacobson lawsuit, is a former president of the association. The invitation to the fundraiser is headlined: Fundraiser in support of Mark Adler.

The “confirmed guests” at the event are Industry Minister Christian Paradis, Government House Leader Peter Van Loan, Senator Linda Frum and parliamentary secretary Pierre Poilievre. Shelly Glover withdrew on Wednesday. Her office said she has events in her riding to attend.

Glover wouldn't want to remind the public of her own lobbyist invited fundraiser. It's important to note that this is not the first time that Adler has been in trouble over fundraisers.

How much does he think he can get away with?

Hopefully, by 2015, the voters of York Centre will have had enough of Mark Adler. I know I have.